“The more people we connect with, the more doors the universe has to work through.”@Michelle Dobbins

“Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its intensity. Give me your hand.” –Rilke

Michelle Dobbins, my fellow fist bumper and internet buddy, ran a wonderful blog post yesterday about the “Six Degrees of Connection.”

In a nutshell, that’s what non-locality is all about. It’s the 101 Dalmatians Principle I talk about it my book. It’s the immutable fact that: “You are connected to everything and everyone else in the Universe.”

And since I know a lot of you are trying to get an audience with an agent or a publisher or maybe even Ellen DeGeneres, I’d like to offer this encouraging story that illustrates how you are connected to everyone from the Dalai Lama and Hilary Clinton to Joseph Campbell and the brilliant guy who proclaimed one of the most profound and oft-repeated phrases in the English language: “All men are created equal.”

For those whose history is a bit rusty, that man was Thomas Jefferson and here’s how you are less than four degrees (forget Kevin Bacon) away from each of them.

When visionary Jean Houston was but three years old, she was at a parade in her hometown of New York City. A wrinkled old codger wearing a confederate soldier’s uniform (hey, nobody’s perfect) came up and shook her hand. He said, “Little girl, you are shaking the hand of a guy who once shook the hand of Thomas Jefferson.”

And since I’ve shaken Jean Houston’s hand, even hugged her at workshops she used to give in Overland Park, Kansas, that means you are but four degrees away from one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. And since Jean has also been known to hug the Dalai Lama, proffer advice to Hilary Clinton and trade mythology with Joseph Campbell, well, you are within three connections of each of them. Isn’t that cool?

I like to think of those beautiful human bonds whenever I get discouraged or overwhelmed by the issues in the news. It’s tempting to wonder what I, one solitary person from Kansas, can do to solve the political chasm, what I, a single mom with a couple twitter followers, can do to stop gun violence.

And then I remember. I can invite my neighbor over for ham and eggs. I can bake a casserole for the new mom that just came home from the hospital. And I can know with complete certainty that I am but an intention away from every single person on the planet.

Pam Grout is the author of 16 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.